--- title: "First Trust files four 15% dual directional buffer ETFs for 2027" url: "https://etf.net/news/four-dual-directional-buffer-etfs-filed-2026-10-27" published_at: "2026-10-27T12:04:31.639Z" updated_at: "2026-10-27T12:04:31.639Z" byline: "ETF.net Research" --- # First Trust files four 15% dual directional buffer ETFs for 2027 The Oct. 26, 2026 registration is preliminary, tickers and fees are blank, and the shares cannot be sold until it is effective. By ETF.net Research. Published Oct 27, 2026. First Trust Exchange-Traded Fund VIII, a fund trust, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Oct. 26, 2026, to register four funds that would seek a gain if the State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, SPY, falls by as much as **15%** over roughly a year, and would forfeit that gain if the fall goes past 15%. Dual directional is the filing's name for a gain in both directions. If the share price of SPY rises over that year, the fund seeks the price gain up to a cap the drafts leave blank. If the price falls by 15% or less, the fund seeks a gain equal to the size of the fall, before fees. The prospectus's example is a 5.5% drop and a sought gain of 5.5%. The most the fund seeks to make from a falling market is 15%, before fees. Past 15%, that gain is forfeited all at once. The fund would then seek to lose 15 percentage points less than SPY. The same rule puts a 16% drop at a return of -1%, before fees. The prospectus's deeper example is a 20.1% drop in SPY and a sought return of -5.1%, before fees. The proposed series are the FT Vest U.S. Equity Dual Directional Moderate Buffer ETF for January, April, July and October. Moderate Buffer is the label First Trust uses for a 15% buffer on its other outcome funds. In these drafts, that 15% is the line where a sought gain becomes a sought loss. The filings are two registration statements on Form 485APOS, the form an existing fund trust uses to add a series. [One covers January and April](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1667919/000144554626008012/etf8_485a.htm). [The other covers July and October](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1667919/000144554626008014/etf8_485a.htm). The cover asks for them to become effective 75 days after filing, which is Jan. 9, 2027, and that date can still move. Ticker symbols are blank. Each prospectus says the fund intends to list its shares on the Cboe BZX exchange. ## Held from the starting price to the end The payoff above is for a buyer who holds from the first day of the fund's year to the last. The buffer is measured from the value at the start of that year. In the prospectus's example the fund starts at $25. A buyer who pays $28, with SPY down 20% at the end, takes a loss. The fall from $28 to $25 is outside the buffer. The fund's own result is still figured from $25. Under normal conditions, each fund would invest substantially all of its assets in FLEX options, listed options with custom terms, on the share price of SPY. The sought return follows that price. Dividends paid by SPY are left out. The periods would run about a year, from those months in 2027 into 2028. The exact days are blank. When a period ends, the fund would stay open and reset, with a new cap set on the first day of the next period. About a week before a period ends, the fund would file an expected range for the next cap. The final cap can fall outside that range. A table in the prospectus assumes a 10% upside cap to illustrate the shape. The cap in the drafts is blank. The management fee and the total annual expense ratio are blank. Distribution fees and other expenses are shown as zero. With the fee unfilled, the drafts also leave blank the cap, the maximum gain in a falling market and the buffer after expenses. First Trust Advisors would be the adviser. Vest Financial would be the sub-adviser. Each prospectus calls the fund actively managed and new, with no assets and no performance record. ## Innovator already lists these months at 15% Innovator Capital Management already lists a 15% dual directional fund for January, April, July and October, each at 0.79%. They are the [Innovator Equity Dual Directional 15 Buffer ETF - January](https://www.innovatoretfs.com/ddfj), DDFJ; the [Innovator Equity Dual Directional 15 Buffer ETF - April](https://www.innovatoretfs.com/DDFA), DDFA; the Innovator Equity Dual Directional 15 Buffer ETF - July, DDFL; and the Innovator Equity Dual Directional 15 Buffer ETF - October, DDFO. The upside caps on those funds were set at the start of each outcome year. Innovator's page for DDFJ shows a starting cap of 8.96% before fees for the year from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2026, so that cap ends before the January 2027 period in this filing. DDFA opened the year from April 1, 2026, through March 31, 2027, with a starting cap of 13.36%. First Trust's S&P 500 dual directional funds cover February, May, August and November, with a 10% buffer and a 0.85% expense ratio as of Oct. 1, 2026. They are the [FT Vest U.S. Equity Dual Directional Buffer ETF - February](https://www.ftportfolios.com/retail/etf/EtfSummary.aspx?Ticker=DLFE), DLFE; the [FT Vest U.S. Equity Dual Directional Buffer ETF - May](https://www.ftportfolios.com/Retail/Etf/EtfSummary.aspx?Ticker=DLMY), DLMY; the [FT Vest U.S. Equity Dual Directional Buffer ETF - August](https://www.ftportfolios.com/Retail/Etf/EtfSummary.aspx?Ticker=DLAG), DLAG; and the [FT Vest U.S. Equity Dual Directional Buffer ETF - November](https://www.ftportfolios.com/Retail/Etf/EtfSummary.aspx?Ticker=DLNV), DLNV. The new filing leaves the funds already trading as they are. What the drafts still have open is the fee and the upside cap. Source: etf.net, https://etf.net/news/four-dual-directional-buffer-etfs-filed-2026-10-27. Please cite the page URL.